Play, Watch, Listen

This week, we talk a bit about composing for early access, and how much scores (and VFX) influence films.

This week, Mike, Austin, and Alanah mostly talk about human nature. No, really. The new James Bond game is also spoken about for about 10 minutes at the end.

Alanah and Mike chat to game director Nic Tringali about science-fantasy city-builder "Amberspire".

Mike and Alanah chat about the pit-falls of working for yourself, and how to manage your time as a freelance (or self-funded indie) game developer.

SORRY AUDIO LISTENERS: podcast services briefly put a hold on our uploads, so you'll get a few in a row as we catch up! This episode features Austin, Mike, and Alanah talking about the changes at Xbox, among other things.

This week, Mike and Alanah discuss Bithell games, whether Mike is a Golden Retriever Boyfriend, the new era of the cosplay community, collaboration among indie game devs, and our fear of Early Access.

Alanah, Mike, and Austin discuss sex (or the lack thereof) in video games, and how video game writing and film/TV do and do not compare. Also, happy new year! 

Apologies for the late upload! On this episode, Mike & Austin chat about the success of Dispatch, changes to video game dev structures, and where the industry seems to be headed.

This week, Austin, Mike, and Alanah are joined by Adhoc Studios' Pierre Shorette to talk about Dispatch - the latest narrative driven game made by a group of Telltale alumni.

Alanah and Mike discuss indie game marketing, and the fact that getting past being worried about something sucking is the best way to start... making something!

This week, Alanah, Mike, and Austin chat about Hollow Knight: Silksong (yes, it's hard) and how media seems to prefer difficult games, Alanah's recent ChatGPT video (though this was recorded before it was published), and the Freewrite Traveler. 

This week, we sat down to chat with Matt Nava from Giant Squid, all about the studio's latest game - Sword of the Sea.

Austin, Mike, and Alanah chat about IP Rights and our (very early, uniformed lol) thoughts on the "Stop Killing Games" petition.

This week, Mike and Alanah talk about learning to use game engine Godot, the brilliant lighting in TRON: Catalyst, and ethics in genitalia shown in film.

This week, Alanah, Mike, and Austin sat down to chat to Tonda Ros - the director of Blue Prince. Apologies for Tonda's echo!

Alanah and Austin chat Blue Prince, addictive video games, and Satisfactory.

This week, Mike, Alanah, and Austin chat to co-founder of Stoic, the creators of The Banner Saga and, more recently, Towerborne!

This week, Alanah and Mike discuss the Switch 2 presentation! 

This week, Alanah and Mike start out by talking about the lay-offs across WB Games, then jump into talking about Microsoft's newly announced AI "Muse", and then we - finally - get Alanah's thoughts on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

This week, Austin and Alanah sit down to talk to Mike Laidlaw, the game director of Dragon Age: Origins who most recently started his own studio and make ETERNAL STRANDS. Which Austin also worked on, because of course he did. He cannot be contained.

Apologies for the delay here - the audio file was corrupted! This week, Mike and Alanah are joined by Strange Scaffold's Xalavier Nelson Jr to talk about how the studio makes so many high quality games, and what it really means to be a good game director.

After a break due to the LA fires - which we talk about to begin with here - we chat about a recent 200-page document called "The State of Video Games in 2025" from Matthew Ball. If you'd like links to the charities we mentioned, please check those out on the YouTube version of the podcast!

Happy four years of PWL! Sorry about Mike's audio here, we don't know what happened.

Alanah left her job at Sony, and Mike got in trouble for saying something on Bluesky. We discuss the state of the games industry now that it's December 2024, and the notion that "indies will save" everything.

We're back from a brief hiatus! Immediately discussing: should Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree be nominated for GOTY even though it's a DLC? Also: Mike announced another video game! 

This week, FROSTPUNK 2! 

This week, AUSTIN TURNS 40 (technically over a week ago at the time of publishing). So, we indulge him with almost an entire episode about Star Wars (Outlaws) and video game bugs.

This week, Alanah, Austin, and Mike discuss the economic state of the games industry and if game prices need to go from $60 to $70.

After a month off, we have returned to bring you TOP QUALITY VIDEO GAME CONTENT! But mostly, a lot of us talking about the TV show The Expanse. And Sex in the City?

Austin, Mike, and Alanah chat about Austin's demanding freelance schedule, the GamePass price increase (and GamePass' impact as a whole), and the Halifax Harbor Explosion. Note: almost all details of said Halifax explosion are, indeed, incorrect.

Alanah and Mike discuss OLD game development! And Myst! 

This week we talk about Summer Game Fest and, because we never stay on topic, music licensing! Also featuring Rahul. 

This episode features journalist Nathan Grayson chatting to Mike and Alanah about the state of games journalism (and that side of the industry) in 2024. This comes after IGN announced multiple aquisitions.

This week, Alanah and Austin chat to one of the creators of the Fallout franchise, Tim Cain, all about the Fallout TV show. Includes spoilers.

This week, we talk to Abubakar Salim about his transition from actor to full-blown game director. How did he do it!?

Featuring Rahul Kohli, and the return of Troy, AND we're all in the same room!?

This week, Mike and Alanah chat about GDC, LinkedIn, business cards, and give great life advice.

A LOT OF TOPICS THIS WEEK, WE SIMPLY CAN'T BE CONTAINED.

This week Mike and Alanah chat about the continued lay-offs impacting the games industry.

It's an Austin and Alanah special, and we actually talk about video games the WHOLE TIME!? This week, we talk about games we wish we could play again, and games that fundamentally 'change' however many hours in.

The title says it all, I don't understand what more context you could possibly need?

Apologies for the weird audio mix here. Regardless, this week we talk about Society of the Snow (a little), and then delve into the world of AI and capitalism. Again. Oh no.

This is publishing a little later than planned because of internet issues, but this week we talk about Cunk on Earth, game direction, and more! Thanks for another year of listening to Play, Watch, Listen, everyone!

You can't talk about good games this year without also talking about lay-offs, so hey, let's do both!

This week, Austin and Alanah chat to Rahul (actor) and Andy (composer and 1/2 of the Newton Brothers) about their work on The Fall of the House of Usher! Also, Stray Gods gets nominated for a Grammy, and the F1 Grand Prix debuts in Vegas. Apologies for the audio levels.

An update on the Unity system, and an important question: do you own any baskets? Why?

This week, Mike and Alanah go over some of the biggest question's about Starfield.

We're back! This week Austin chats about Jacob Collier - apparently the best musician alive - and then Alanah asks Mike and special guest Rami Ismail all about the Unity drama.

This week, Mike and Alanah discuss some of the responses to Baldur's Gate 3's exceptional quality.

We have our first ever guest! Summerfall Games' Liam Esler joins Alanah and Austin to talk about Taylor Swift's enormous Eras Tour, plus, of course, the launch of Stray Gods.